We're looking for our forever home!
Have you heard? White Pine has revived its search for a permanent homesite. We’re open to long-term leases or a land purchase. Keep reading to learn about what we’re looking for!
Location
The majority of our participants come from within 25 miles of York, Maine. We do have a few who hail from as far as Boston and event north of Portland, but for a homesite, we’re focused on the towns of York, Cape Neddick, Eliot, Kittery and South Berwick.
Minimum Land Requirements
While the minimum acreage will depend on our ability to use adjacent lands, we ideally would have full allowable usage of between 3 and 10 acres. We’d love to be adjacent to a land trust property, but our educational use is sometimes in conflict with conservation values and property restrictions often limit how we can use the land (ie: whether or not we can pick up dead sticks, have fires, or campouts).
Here’s a list of other considerations besides acreage:
- Parking for 10-15 cars (or an area that can be cleared for parking)
- Variation in topography& ecosystems (important for our curriculum & for play)
- Zoned for business or mixed use
- Either located on a private road or a busy enough road where additional traffic will not bother neighbors
To support these programs, here are some infrastructure we would foresee on the property:
- Primitive campsites with fire pits
- A yurt for weather protection and possible seasonal overnights
- Composting toilet
- Primitive shelters
Land Use
Our curriculum focuses on play, independence, self-care, and curiosity. The following uses of the land are critical to supporting the growth of children and their connection to nature.
- Fire building
- Exploring both on and off trail
- Building shelters with dead materials
- Collecting fallen materials
What Else?
Our hope for a future homesite is that it not only provides a location for programs, but also for our office. We have a small administrative staff (2.5 people) and need just a small office where we can gather for meetings and have some desk space. We do need storage for our gear and curriculum materials, which could be held in a barn, a large shed, a basement or a combination thereof. We would be especially excited about a property with a small home and barn. With housing as expensive as it is on the Seacoast, our staff and volunteers cannot afford to live where are programs run. As such, we’d see a small house as an option for dormitory-style housing in addition to office use. A barn would be a fantastic option for a community gathering space and provide emergency shelter when weather turns unexpectedly.
Partnerships
We love collaboration and believe that our mission can only be fully realized if we can leverage the power of our community. We hope to find property adjacent to a large property (either privately owned or conserved) so that participants who want to explore beyond our property can do so safely and with permission. We’d be also be open to co-locating with another nonprofit, a church, a school, another environmentally focused business….the list goes on!
Other Curricular Elements
While we know no property will be perfect, below is a list of other elements in our curriculum that an ideal property would have some (or all) of!
- Maple trees
- Vernal pools
- Open fields
- Moving water
- Boulders
- Hay bails
- Mud
Who to Contact
Are you a property owner who’d welcome having educational programming on your land? Do you know a property that’s coming to market that might work for us? Please get in touch with our Executive Director, Heather Campbell by calling the office at 207-361-1911 or email her at heather@whitepineprograms.org for an immediate response. Thank you and we look forward to speaking with you!